Food Consumption in Austria Driving Forces and

Transcription

OECD Case Study Austria
1
Food Consumption in Austria
Driving Forces and Environmental Impacts
National case study for
the OECD Programme on Sustainable Consumption
Harald Payer
Petra Burger
Sylvia Lorek
CULINAR
Institute of Eating Culture and Food Economics
Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment
and Water Management
November 2000
2
Table of Contents
1.
2.
Introduction
Food consumption patterns in Austria: trends and driving forces
2.1. What do the Austrians eat?
2.2.
3.
Driving forces
5.
5
5
10
2.2.1. Demographic and socio-economic features
10
2.2.2. Household food expenditures
12
2.2.3. The shopping habits
13
2.2.4. The meal organisation and cooking habits
14
2.2.5. Out of home consumption
16
2.2.6. Globalisation, regionalisation, and fusion kitchen
17
2.2.7. The consumers knowledge about nutrition
19
2.2.8. Food safety and the consumers’ attitudes towards wellness
20
The environmental impacts from food consumption
3.1. Energy
23
24
3.2.
Transport
26
3.3.
Waste
28
3.4.
Environmental awareness in food consumption
29
3.5.
Excursion: Food-related biomass flows - empirical results from national
material flow accounting
4.
3
31
Policy implications
4.1. The importance of environmental issues for national nutrition policies
35
35
4.2.
37
Instruments supporting sustainable food consumption patterns
Conclusions
41
Bibliography
44
Appendix
48
3
1. Introduction
Similar to most of the highly industrialised countries, the food system is one of the largest
sectors of Austria’s national economy. It represents a highly heterogeneous and complex
system of structures and relations, which reaches from input deliveries into agriculture up
to consumers and the waste disposal infrastructures. The food system covers the whole
food chain (from the stable to the table). It includes the agricultural production of foods, the
processing of foods in small-scale firms and big factories, the distribution by wholesale
trade, retail chains and groceries, the preparation of food in various types of out-of-home
kitchens, households, consultants, intermediary agents, and official supervisors (Culinar
1997, Green et al. 1999, Tansey and Worsley 1995). Although the food economy of Austria, in terms of globalisation, is a marginal market, it is often linked up with some very well
known names such as Wiener Schnitzel, Sachertorte, Mozartkugel, Red Bull, and the marvellous white wines. Beyond that handful of culinary superstars, however, there is an unfortunately less known, but huge variety of regional specialities, which, considering the country’s small size, offer a great range of regional tastes and culinary styles. In the past decade a great deal of innovative power has arisen to combine traditional culinary knowledge
with a modern life style.
During the past few decades the food system has been, and still is, regularly challenged by
tremendous structural changes, which have moved the traditional patterns of production
and consumption into completely new modes. But, the meaning of the food system as a
core sector of the national economy has not changed – even in the running societal transition into a knowledge-based economy. In Austria, the food chain is a major employer contributing considerably to the economy. It gives work to about 650,000 people, which is
about 20% of all gainfully employed people, or, to put it into other words, every fifth gainfully employed person finds his/her workplace in the food sector. The gross product of the
food sector is about 14% of the GDP, and it is strongly connected to a number of further
sectors of the economy such as the engine building industry, the fertiliser industry, the
packaging industry, public utilities, tourism etc. The food chain in Austria can be described
in brief as: small-scale agriculture with a high share of pasture land, only a few large processing companies and a lot of small and mid-scale enterprises, with one of the most extremely concentrated retailing sectors in Europe. In comparison to other countries, it still
has a relatively low market volume in the out-of-home sector.
The ecological problems connected with the food chain are manifold and quite complex.
The figure below just gives a brief overview of a few of the core pressures on the environment. There is no doubt that the final consumption influences the trends in the food processing, distribution and preparation sectors through the consumers’ choice of diet and their
demand for food-related services. Household food choices also have direct environmental
impacts related to how households purchase, store and prepare their food and how much
organic and packaging waste they generate. It is the aim of the Austrian case study to explore these issues. The study is part of the international project on Household Food Con-
4
sumption Patterns of the OECD Environment Directorate. It is accompanied by three further case studies on Poland, Sweden and the United States.
Section 2 of the study describes the major trends in the household food demand and the
key forces driving consumption patterns. These include the rise of the ratio of older people
to the population as a whole, increasing incomes, shrinking time budgets, preferences for
convenience and variety, and attitudes towards wellness and general security. Section 3
describes direct environmental impacts from consumer food choices at the household level
in the areas of energy, transport and waste. This section also includes a methodological
excursion on the contribution of material flow accounting to the measuring of the food related biomass flows at the national level. Section 4 delivers considerations of policy implications and recommendations for promising starting points for building capacity in favour of
more sustainable food consumption.
Fig. 1: Ecological core problems in the food chain
Agriculture
Processing
Distribution
Out-of-Home
Services
Households
energy intensity,
use of pesticides,
use of mineral
fertilisers,
inadequate use of
animal manure,
heavy metal
emissions,
intensive livestock
farming,
pressures upon
ground water and
surface water,
pressures upon
and destruction of
biotopes,
losses of biodiversity
energy intensity,
water intensity
organic emissions
into water,
intensive use of
detergents and
disinfectants
intensive use of
coolants,
additives,
packaging
transport intensity,
energy intensity,
area intensity,
intensive use of
coolants,
intensive waste
disposals,
packaging
intensive waste
disposals,
energy intensity
intensive waste
disposals,
energy intensity,
food miles by
shopping drives
high
medium
low
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2. Food consumption patterns in Austria: trends and driving
forces
2.1. What do the Austrians eat?
Data on food consumption in Austria are reported in national food balance sheets mainly
derived from agricultural, production and foreign trade statistics. The data present chronological development and changes in consumption behaviour thus allowing the possibility to
estimate and compare trends. Methods of data sampling for most foods have changed
since Austria joined the European Union (EU) in 1995. Thus interpretation of developments
in food consumption during 1947-1994 differs from interpretations of 1995 onwards. Accordingly, calculated consumption figures are numerically higher than the actual amounts
of food which are available to the single household or person, as losses due to scraping,
spoilage or pet feeding are not accounted for. To estimate the available amounts of foods,
food-group specific correction factors were developed and applied.
The table below shows the relative changes in the average consumption of food categories
for the period from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Furthermore, the appendix of the study
includes time series starting from the 1950s, which offer a more detailed picture of the longterm changes in consumption of all food categories.
Fig. 2: Relative changes in the average consumption of food categories from 1983/84 to
1993/94, in percent (BMLF 1997, Elmadfa et al. 1999)
6
The highest increases in the quantities of food products (more than 20% increase) concern
fruit juices (plus 49%), followed by barley, oat and corn (plus 35%), nuts (plus 31%), rice
(plus 30%), cheese (plus 27%) and legumes (plus 23%). The growing demand for these
food groups can be regarded as a consequence of still growing health awareness among
broad consumer groups. However, it should be taken into account that this is only one of a
great number of further possible reasons. The focus on the quantitative changes within the
food consumption basket only reflects quantitative shifts within the consumption structure
on a highly aggregate level. It cannot provide any information about the qualitative dimension of the products themselves.
Slight increases (up to 20%) are recorded for the consumption of cream, curd, fish, poultry,
plant oils, vegetables, fresh fruit, pork, beer and wheat. A rather stable development can be
noticed for the consumption of potatoes, sugar and confectionery, wine and milk. Up to 3%
reduction in consumption is calculated for butter, citrus fruits, bread cereals and eggs. Less
and more significant decreases concern the consumption of veal, beef and honey (minus
5%) as well as rye and cocoa (up to more than minus 20%).
Apart from these rough average data, there are relatively strong differences with regard to
gender, age and professional categories. For example, women tend to consume more
vegetable foods (fruits, vegetables, and cereals). Men eat more meat and eat it almost
daily. But whereas men eat more pork, beef and sausages, the consumption of poultry is
rather independent from gender. People in education, people keeping the household and
freelancers eat less meat than other professional categories. The highest consumption of
meat is recorded for farmers, blue-collar workers and managers (Döcker et al, BMLF 1997,
Elmadfa and Godina-Zarfl 1994).
From a nutritional point of view, the long-term decreases in consumption of bread cereals,
mainly whole grain products, potatoes and milk (see also the appendix), might lead to a
long-term insufficient supply of some nutrients such as fibre and calcium among the population. Although increased consumption of vegetables, fruits and certain fruit products can
be useful with regard to supplying vitamin A and C, this, however, does not compensate for
poor nutrient intake from the former mentioned food groups. The supply of calcium might
be compensated by remarkable increases in cheese consumption. The increasing consumption of low-fat meat such as poultry, vegetable fats and oils as well as fish has to be
seen positively as well. Fish, for example, delivers a variety of important nutrients such as
highly unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin D and iodine – which are all very rarely found in the
Austrian diet. However, it ought to be taken into account that sometimes the nutritional recommendation does not meet the ecological challenge. It is especially the increase in fish
and poultry consumption that causes a lot of ecological problems (waste, emissions, and
transport) if the products come from intensified production systems. In Austria, the demand
for fish is mainly filled by imports of seafood and ocean-fish.
7
Tab. 1: Average food consumption per capita — Austria in comparison to the EU (ÖSTAT,
EUROSTAT)
Average consumption
per capita, in kilogram
Austria
EU
(1997/98)
(1995/96)
milk and dairy products, total
cheese
butter
meat, total (fish excluded)
pork
beef and veal
poultry
grain, total
sugar
eggs
honey
wine (in litre/p.a.)
112,4
17,4
5,0
94,4
57,4
18,5
17,2
83,1
42,1
14,1
1,1
30,9
123,2
15,4
4,7
94,8
41,3
20,3
20,4
80,6
33,1
13,0
0,5
34,7
Sources: ÖSTAT, EUROSTAT
Alternatively – lacking consistent intake data for different age groups – it is also possible to
estimate energy and macronutrient intake by calculating the necessary values from the
consumption data above by multiplying the amounts consumed by average energy and
nutrient contents for the respective food category. Differences between food consumption
and food intake were estimated using well-established, food-group specific correction factors (Erard et al. 1986). They take into account losses due to spoilage, processing in the
kitchen (e.g. peeling), scraping, leftovers and pet feeding. Poultry shows particularly low
intake figures compared to consumption, because waste due to bones, skin and the like is
highest. Also, consumption data for fat and oil cannot be included totally in nutrient intake
estimations as a lot of it is lost by roasting and frying or thrown away with salad marinades
etc, consequently entailing high correction factors.
The table below shows the results of such a calculation. Although based on a quite superficial method or maybe because of the rough estimation, the findings show a highly satisfactory intake of energy, carbohydrates, proteins and fat for the average Austrian.
8
Tab. 2: Estimation of energy and macronutrient intake in Austria according to per capita
consum ption taken from Austrian food/supply balance sheets 1998/99 1
wheat
rye
barley, oat, maize
rice
legumes
potatoes
vegetables
fish
milk
butter
cream
cheese, curd
pork
beef/veal
poultry
eggs
plant oil
oilseeds
fresh fruits
citrus fruits
shell fruits
sugar
honey
beer
wine
Total
1
Consump.
(kg/ a)
Intake
(kg/)a
Intake
(g/d)
Energy
(kcal/d)
Carbohydr. (g/d)
Protein
(g/d)
Fat
(g/d)
54,9
46,7
127,8
393,8
78,0
14,6
2,6
10,9
9,3
25,4
89,4
20,1
1,8
0,2
9,4
8,0
21,9
72,9
13,7
2,4
0,9
4,2
3,6
9,8
33,6
7,7
0,6
0,1
0,3
0,3
0,7
2,0
0,3
0,2
0,0
58,6
49,8
136,5
95,5
20,2
2,7
0,1
93,6
79,6
218,0
48,0
5,0
5,2
0,7
6
5,1
14,0
16,3
0,0
2,5
0,7
98,6
83,8
229,6
147,0
11,0
7,6
8,0
5,1
2,8
7,7
57,9
0,1
0,1
6,4
7
6,0
16,3
50,4
0,6
0,4
5,2
16,4
13,4
36,8
142,2
0,0
10,6
11,1
57,7
31,7
86,9
91,3
0,0
19,1
22,9
19,3
9,8
27,0
26,6
0,0
5,9
1,0
17,2
7,6
20,7
49,1
0,0
3,8
3,8
13,4
11,4
31,2
49,6
0,2
4,0
3,7
11,1
6,0
16,4
147,6
0,0
0,0
16,4
1,9
1,6
4,4
24,9
0,5
0,8
2,2
73,7
42,7
117,1
63,2
13,4
0,4
0,7
14,2
8,2
22,6
9,5
1,9
0,2
0,0
4,4
2,6
7,0
37,1
1,1
1,1
3,2
40,4
34,3
94,1
376,3
94,1
0,0
0,0
1,4
1,2
3,3
10,6
2,6
0,0
0,0
113,3
96,3
263,8
113,5
8,2
1,3
0,0
30,6
26,0
71,3
51,3
1,9
0,1
0,0
763,6
587,8
1610,3
2199,7
280,3
85,4
89,8
Consumption data from food/supply balance sheets (kg/capita/y) were reduced by correction factors (between 18 and 55%, Erard et al. 1986), intake data (kg/capita/y) were transformed to g/d (divided by 365 and 1000). For every food and/or food group average values for energy and macronutrients (per 100 g food) were taken from nutrient tables (Elmadfa et al. 1998) and correlated with the
intake amount in g. Intake of energy, carbohydrates, fat and protein per single food (group) were
added to get results on total per capita intake of energy and respective nutrients in Austria.
9
The Austrian Study on Nutritional Status (ASNS) aimed to record and document information on the nutritional status in Austria. Within sub-studies of this project, several methods
were applied for the determination of nutrient intake of: school-children (n=2173), adults
(n=2488), pregnant (n=350) and lactating women (n=43) and elderly people (n=78) as well
as the laboratory assessment of nutrient concentrations in blood and urine of these population groups. Results are extensive and presented in the Austrian nutrition report 1998 in
more detail. Fig. 3 gives a short and simplified summary of the most outstanding results of
the comprehensive material.
As with children and adults, it was noted that elderly people had an unsatisfactory intake of
fat and a simultaneously unfavourable fat composition to the detriment of carbohydrate
intake. Supply with vitamin D as well as B6 and folic acid should be improved rapidly, the
latter especially for pregnant women and the elderly. To a lesser extent, an optimisation is
also required for the intake of β-carotene. As far as minerals and trace elements are concerned, the micronutrients of interest for improvement strategies are iron for pregnant
women and additional zinc for the elderly.
Fig. 3: Simplified overview on supply with vitamins, minerals and trace elements in different
Austrian population groups* (data taken from Elmadfa et al. 1999)
Children
Pregnant
Lactating
Adults
Elderly
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin B1
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Folic Acid
Calcium
Magnesium
Iron
Zink
*Reference values for intake data (= 100%) were taken from recommended daily allowances for
nutrient intake of the DGE (2000).
Explanation:
>= 100%
80 -100%
60 - 80%
< 60%
sufficient supply
lower intake
visibly lower intake
deficient intake
10
In general, the trend in food consumption and consequently nutrient intake in Austria has
shown some changes during the past few years indicating that although widely available,
nutrition information may be reaching consumers, it is apparently not fully utilised. Whether
or not the present unsatisfying nutritional situation endures will be confirmed in the following years as future nutrition reports will indicate changes in the nutritional status of the Austrian population.
2.2. Driving forces
2.2.1. Demographic and socio-economic features
Austria has about 8.1 million inhabitants, women constituting the narrow majority with
51%. The population outlooks for Austria foresee a sustained slight increase during the
next two decades, which will be followed by a relatively short period of demographic stagnation and finally a moderate but certain decrease. The age structure of the population will
change in favour of a growing portion of older people. By 2015 the share of people over 60
will increase to 25% whereas the share of children under the age of 15 will go down to 14%
(ÖSTAT 1999, Fassmann and Münz 1998).
This means a more or less constant need of physiological energy (in kJ) and/or food products during the near future but a long-term decline in demand, mainly caused by the lower
energy needs of older people. The total difference in energy requirements between now
and the next fifteen years amounts to only a 1.4% increase (also see table), whereas there
is a lower overall energy need for Austrian women (minus 147.6 kcal) compared to men
(plus 36.4 kcal). This means that in spite of today’s forecasts, no significant increases in
nutrient and consequently food demand are expected for the next fifteen years.
Respective impacts on body weight cannot yet be predicted. Today the average Austrian
man is 1.75 m tall and weighs 78 kg, the Austrian woman measures about 1.65 m and 64
kg (FESSEL+GfK 1998). More than half of the Austrian population shows normal weight
(65%), but nearly one third (32%) is overweight. Eight and a half percent of the Austrian
population over 20 years old are even obese when classified according to a body mass
index (BMI) higher than 30 kg/m 2. In this group, 48% are male. Apart from age (highest
amount of obesity among 45 to 75 year old Austrians) the level of education entailing social
status also influences the percentage of obesity. Academics seem to contribute least to the
number of obese people in Austria (Kiefer 2000).
11
Tab. 3: Estimated changes in average energy requirements (Megajoule, MJ 2) for different
age groups in Austria between 2000 and 2015 according to current Austrian nutrition recommendations (DACH 2000) as well as population outlooks of the Austrian centre of statistics (ÖSTAT 1999)
Age (years)
0-<5
5 - < 10
10 - < 15
15 - < 20
20 - < 25
25 - < 50
50 - < 65
> 65
Total
1999 (MJ)
male
female
1.002
0.891
1.726
1.482
2.467
2.033
3.222 2.486
2.973
2.310
18.993
14.607
7.290
6.079
4.522
5.837
42.195
35.725
2015 (MJ)
male
female
0.857
0.756
1.289
1.091
1.993
1.616
2.875
3.162
16.556
9.222
6.394
42.348
2.178
2.421
12.854
7.457
6.729
35.103
difference (%)
male
female
-14.46
-15.09
-25.30
-26.34
-19.19
-20.54
-10.77
+6.37
-12.83
+26.49
+41.39
+0.36
-12.38
+4.83
-12.00
+22.66
+15.28
-1.74
In any case, the competition in the food market will become even more intensive than today, especially the market for younger people. Whereby even the growing target group of
the future seniors offers good chances for remarkable sales potentials.
The traditional family stereotype – with the father as “breadwinner,” the mother as “homemaker” and at least two children – represents only a very small proportion of today’s society in Austria. The number of households will continue to increase whereas the average
size of the households will simultaneously decrease. At the beginning of the 1960s, in Austria there were just half a million single-households, but today they are already about one
million, which is approximately one third of all households. There is a clear development
towards a further boost, which in fact can be seen to be much stronger in the urban areas
than in the provinces. In comparison, the number of multi-person households has grown by
only 20%. This development in favour of single-households and the general trend to individualisation promotes the demand for convenience products, smaller packing units, rationalised cooking behaviour and for a stronger home meal replacement (Fassmann and
Münz 1998, Nohel et al. 1999).
The ratio of children per household will continue to go down. The average European
household size has fallen from 3.2 to 2.7 persons in the last fifteen years. This means more
interest – even anxiety – on the part of the mothers, and more disposable income per child.
What is lost in quantity will be made up in quality: on the one hand some mothers will compensate the little time they have for the children by spending more money on them. On the
other hand, parents will also be able to afford to spend more on quality products if there are
fewer children per household. Childhood is getting shorter, followed by a longer “youth period,” ranging from more or less 10 to 30 years of age. Older adolescents stay in the paren2
1 kJ = 4,28 kcal
12
tal home longer and become information gateways, having more time and interest in commercials than working parents. The Austrian middle aged group – former “baby boomers” –
is very concerned about health, striving to maintain, retain or regain its youth. The concept
of healthy food as life prolonging and age delaying might receive more attention (AURORA
1998).
The number of working women with a higher education is still increasing whereas the number of women only acting as housewives is definitely going down. Together with the fact
that the majority of men still only minimally participate in the housekeeping agenda, these
factors will contribute to the growing demand for frozen foods, chilled ready meals, single
serving packages, instant meals, sophisticated kitchen equipment, mobile delivery services
and home meal replacement (domestic outsourcing).
The way people spend their time and the value given to time is closely related to the sociodemographic changes. There is a deeper involvement in increasingly varied activities and a
new sense of precious ‘escape time’. “Downshifting” is another new trend where people
change to a simpler life style, including the impact of increased interest in traditional dishes
and the choice of ingredients (AURORA 1998).
2.2.2. Household food expenditures
As in many other countries, the relative share of food expenditure to total private consumption has decreased continuously: from 21.3% (1985) to 15.3% (1997) according to the results of national accounts. At least for the better off, this facilitates moving up to higher
quality foods (AURORA 1998). The access to the EU in 1995 even caused a slight decline
in absolute figures, namely a 3.9% decrease in total private food consumption. However,
this sort of statistic takes into consideration only those expenditures directly connected to
daily food consumption. It does not include indirect food-related expenditures like, for example cooking equipment expenditures or energy costs for cooking. However, the figures
clearly underline the fact that the consumption of food has strongly lost its former nature of
support of a basic need. Today there is no quantitative problem of food supply for the majority of the population. The flexible portion of the income available for food has gained a
remarkable importance for the consumer goods markets. This income effect together with
the enormously growing variety of the food supply has promoted a more situated and
event-driven consumer behaviour (hybrid consumer, chameleon consumer), which gradually seems to be losing the former strong determination by social factors such as income,
education and profession.
Tab. 4: Share of food expenditures (food, beverages, and tobacco) in total private consumption 1985-1997, in % (ÖSTAT 1999)
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
21,3
21,4
20,6
20,1
19,0
18.6
18,5
18,1
17.8
17,2
16,6
15,6
15,3
13
Tab. 5: Average monthly food expenditures differentiated by food category 1993/94
(OSTAT 1999)
Categories
in ATS/month
in %
meat, fish
milk, dairies, eggs
bread, cereals
fruits, vegetables
candies
non-alcoholic drinks
alcoholic drinks
others
1220
747
582
572
462
443
381
465
17,06
10,44
8,14
8,00
6,46
6,19
5,33
6,50
equipment
out of home
630
1651
8,81
23,08
total
7153
100,00
A further but no less interesting facet, which cannot be seen at the level of average data, is
the growing difference between rich and poor – even concerning the consumption of food.
In this case the scissors of welfare means a polarisation of the food market into an increasing low-budget sector with extreme price competition and an increasing supply of higher
quality products (delicatessens, regional brands, products with some kind of additional
benefit), but also a decreasing middle-price sector. (Bayer et al.1999). However, today’s
premium products are no longer exclusively dedicated to the rich. It can be seen that
mainly on special occasions, even households with lower incomes demand high price
products (e.g. wine, champagne, ham) with high visibility.
2.2.3. The shopping habits
Austrian households make their food purchases 3.5 times a week on average. About one
quarter of the households go food shopping every day or nearly every day, about 40% go
twice a week at best. On weekends people want shopping to be an experience and a
pleasant one. They demand an attractive shop environment and personal professional
service. If there is enough time, interest in complex, high quality products is greater. The
most important source of supply for nearly all food categories are supermarkets and discount markets. Only meats and baked goods are purchased more frequently from the specialised trade. The dominance of the super- and discount markets has the highest significance for milk, dairy products and cheeses, which are normally bought there by threequarters of all consumers. Domestic supply and marketplaces have an important role for
the purchase of fresh vegetables, salad ingredients, and fresh fruit. Eggs and wine are
quite often bought directly from the farmers (BMLF 1997).
14
Apart from these traditional outlets, new forms of food shopping opportunities have begun
to gain more importance during the last few years, namely petrol stations, mobile delivery
services, bookshops, food slot-machines, and last but not least, electronic commerce. The
rate of online-shopping has increased remarkably, also in the field of food sales, although
the growth rates are not so extreme as in other fields. Fresh foods in particular require
deep confidence on the part of the consumers, which in fact is not easy to satisfy via internet purchasing.
Tab. 6: Usual sources of food shopping in 1996, in % of the interviewees (2 nominations
maximum per food category) (BMLF 1997)
Meats
Poultry
Eggs
Fresh vegetables, salad
Fruit
Herbs
Fish
Milk and dairy
Bread and baked goods
Cheese
Wine
Supermarkets,
46
51
39
55
64
45
55
75
41
74
40
Specialised
trade
56
34
12
21
24
14
31
25
75
30
19
Self-supply
Marketplaces
Farmers
9
6
12
33
24
35
5
6
4
1
4
8
10
14
20
18
13
5
3
4
7
2
16
10
36
5
4
2
4
11
2
3
27
2.2.4. The meal organisation and cooking habits
Cooking is still a rather female domain in Austria. Nearly all women (96%) cook at least
now and then, among men less than half (46%) concur with this statement. Twenty-two
percent of Austrian men admit not being able to cook and a further 32% admit that they
simply don’t do it (FESSEL+GfK 1998). Among those men and women who had stated they
cook regularly, about one third (34%) likes doing so very much and another third (30%) just
likes it. Only 5% confess that they don’t like cooking at all (AC Nielsen 1999).
Products used for cooking have also changed in the last decades. Three quarters of the
population use whole-grain products at least occasionally. Even more, 79%, select organically grown products from time to time for preparing their meals (FESSEL+GfK 1998),
whereby fruit and vegetables show the highest dissemination (79% of households use organically grown products), followed by milk and dairy products (65%) as well as meat and
sausages (together 61%). Products directly from the farmer correspond to people's wishes
for "adventure" foods, as the flair of the region and the utopia of a simple life are bought
with them. Reasons for the above mentioned special importance of organically grown
products are, for example, their ability to fulfil several needs – nature, safety, security,
uniqueness, handicraft skills – all at the same time (BMLF 1997).
15
Among ready-to-eat meals, deep-frozen foods are used more frequently (16% once a
week) than chilled products (13%) or dehydrated instant meals (10%). The least popular
convenience-dishes are canned foods (only 8% use them regularly).
Austrian consumers enjoy 3.1 meals per day on average, 79% indicated that they eat very
or at least rather regularly (AC Nielsen 1999). A different Austrian survey (FESSEL+GfK
1998) confirmed these data, stating that 76% of the Austrian population eats rather regularly, whereas the percentage of regular eaters is higher among elderly people over 60
(88%) and significantly lower among adolescents under 19 (61%).
As meal planning is declining – dinner choice is often not decided until late in the afternoon,
convenience without the necessity of making choices, no risk of failure and no need to supervise will be an increasingly important factor as far as food choice is concerned.
The structural change of working hours and conditions also affects the organisation of daily
meals. First of all, it must be stressed that in general the traditional three meals – breakfast,
lunch and dinner – still dominate the daily meal structure of Austrian households. The majority of the households usually follow this meal time schedule. However, when family
members have busy schedules with work, school, additional evening courses, leisure activities etc. a continued decline in sit-down, all together family meals can be expected in
both quantity and quality of food. Dinner has gained a lot of social importance in comparison to former days. The often very different time schedules of the various family members
has led to the replacement of the previously common family meal at midday to one in the
evening hours. Dinner has therefore become the most intimate of all meals where all family
communication can take place most easily.
Snacks between meals are still not very common, but their frequency is increasing markedly. The term “grazing” has been coined to describe the intermittent snacking that characterises eating for some consumers. About one half of consumers have a quick snack in the
morning, about a third have a snack during the afternoon, and about a quarter regain their
appetite some time after dinner. However, a remarkable portion of all consumers eat alone,
mainly at breakfast and dinner, when nearly every second consumer has no partner at the
table (BMLF 1997, Horx 1998, Nohel et al. 1999).
To evaluate the most popular meals in Austria a ranking was constructed which placed the
traditional “Wiener Schnitzel” still at number one – being the favourite dish of 12% of the
population and together with other meat meals constituting even 35%, closely followed by
spaghetti and other pasta. Compared to average top preferences, the latter as well as
pizza seem to be the preferred meals especially for 14 to 24 year old Austrians. When asking Austrians about their favourite garnishing, gender-related differences can be seen as
women tend to prefer vegetables and potatoes whereas men prefer salads and french-fries
(AC Nielsen 1999).
16
2.2.5. Out of home consumption
Out of home consumption has gained increased importance. It is estimated that about one
quarter of total food expenditure of households is spent in favour of out of home supplies,
which represent one of the most dynamic markets of the whole food chain. Since the second half of the 1990s the large kitchen market in Austria is characterised by an intensive
structural change mainly dominated by the entrance of professional caterers and the widespread implementation of quality management systems. Moreover, some of the big chain
stores have also started to enter into the out of home business. All over Europe, foodservice is growing at 2-3% per year, against recent retail market growth of 0.5%. The share of
food expenditure is forecast at between 30 and 40%.
In Austria, currently about 3 million inhabitants have at least one meal per day out of the
home. About two thirds demand different supplies of communal feeding, and about one
third eats at one of the manifold gastronomic sites. More than a third of Austrians have their
lunch and nearly a third their morning snack out of home. The most frequent kind of out of
home consumption takes place directly at the work place. More than half of all working
people has a meal at the work place, which is equivalent to a share of about 80% of all
persons who are supplied within the frame of communal feeding (BMLF 1997). Supply of
kindergartens, small hostels, and especially seniors is mostly performed by communal catering cuisine. Apart from commercial catering enterprises, also single communal feeding
businesses have gained importance. Nursing homes have a big part in the out-of-home
market mainly due to mobile catering systems, which enable the elderly to remain in their
habitual environment for a prolonged time (AGÖ 1995).
However, in comparison to the importance of out of home supply, consistent data about the
total economic turnover of the whole sector are not yet available. The contribution to gross
domestic product by the gastronomic supply alone is estimated to be about 60 billion ATS.
About 90% of all gastronomic enterprises are small-scale firms with less than ten employees (BMLF 1997).
As far as eating in restaurants is concerned, Austrians go out to eat on an average of thirtysix times a year according to a different survey method carried out with personal interviews.
In more detail this means that 29% of the population – 20% of women and nearly twice as
many men (39%) go to public places to have their meals. Household income influences this
lifestyle factor a lot: Only 18% of people with a household-net-income of up to 15,000 ATS
compared to 47% of people earning over 30,000 ATS frequently eat out of their homes (AC
Nielsen 1999). When asked for locations of out of home consumption the simple Austrian
restaurant/pub (“Gasthaus,” “Beisl”) ranges on top of the list, followed by the higher quality
restaurant. Self-service and/or fast food restaurants have increased in popularity, especially among men, working people, families with children and younger Austrians (85% of
15-19 year old teenagers eat in such restaurants at least now and then). In Austria, the
butcher is also a common place to have lunch or a fast snack (10% have a meal there at
least once a week). The snack has also become more and more important for daily nutri-
17
tion (FESSEL+GfK 1998).
Tab. 7: Relative frequency of the use of out of home supplies, in % (BMLF 1997)
canteens at the workshop place
restaurants, bars, cafés, fast food chains etc.
inns, guesthouses
hospitals, nursing homes, sanatoriums, barracks, jails,
educational sites (universities, schools, kindergartens etc)
travel canteens (stations, airports, air catering etc.)
mobile meal services
total
53 %
23 %
11 %
6%
5%
1%
1%
100 %
2.2.6. Globalisation, regionalisation, and fusion kitchen
The increasing globalisation of life promotes crossover cultural development even in the
field of nutrition. It is not surprising that the import quota of foods is rising continuously. In
Austria the share of imported foods (raw materials and dressings) is estimated to be about
20% of total food consumption today (ÖSTAT). The range of different cuisine is growing
and the different types are becoming more familiar. Traditional regional cuisine has to
compete with an increasing variety of foreign cuisines. But simultaneously the boundaries
between the different types are tending to lose their clarity.
With regard to the eating culture, the complex dynamics of globalisation and regionalisation
determine the evolution of the kitchen styles. The first trend is the appearance of a globalised market kitchen, which is composed of an easy-to-survey number of ingredients and
dressings providing nearly standardised tastes and culinary feelings all over the world
(Schwendter 1997). The second trend clearly supports regional taste. Moreover, with the
speed and uncertainty of economic and cultural globalisation, national identities have begun to lose their previous importance whereas the preferences for regional differentiation
and identification seem to be gaining in attraction. Although cultural differences are still
very strong there is a trend to new traditional values along with globalisation. The demand
for foods and dressings with regional or local brands has obviously remained stable. Different consumer inquiries within the last few years regularly highlight the importance of regional origin as one of the quality criteria with the highest rankings (BMLF 1997, Fessel+GfK 1998, AC Nielsen 1999). And even the globally acting food producers often have
to provide the same product with different regional tastes. The motto “Think global, act local!” seems to be highly pertinent. Thus it is no wonder that 55% of the Austrian population
still prefers plain fare, with people over 60 constituting the major part of that figure. Italian
cooking is quoted as the favourite meal choice by 12%, Asian cooking by only 2% (AC
Nielsen 1999).
18
Fig. 4 Food foreign trade of Austria 1992-1999
Import in 1000 tons
1400
1200
1000
meat
800
cereals
fish
sugar
milk and products of milk
600
vegetables, fruits
oilseeds, oil and fats
other food
400
200
0
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
Export in 1000 tons
1400
meat
1200
cereals
fish
sugar
milk and products of milk
oilseeds, oil and fats
vegetables, fruits
other food
1000
800
600
400
200
0
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
19
2.2.7. The consumers knowledge about nutrition
Due to the collapse of the “information float” especially through TV and the World Wide
Web as well as higher levels of education, there is much greater awareness of possibilities
available. Higher choice awareness will have wide-ranging effects and develop “creative”
consumers who are smarter and more self-reliant than ever before (AURORA 1998). Many
more Austrians compared to other EU citizens (60% compared to 37%) state that they use
labels as the only possibility to get information about the food they eat and the nutritional
facts. Only 9% knew advertising, 3 8% brochures and 4% newspapers when asked for
other sources for food-relevant information other than labelling. The aim of this EU-wide
study was to evaluate the differences in information needs among countries and people's
attitudes towards food labelling. In total, more than 13,000 questionnaires were distributed,
over 1000 in Austria. The survey was mainly conducted in super- and hypermarkets (Fraselle and Lacoste 1998). Forty-four percent of Austrian men and women – similar to figures
for other EU countries – stated they read food labels and/or data found on goods sold without packaging (see also chapter 2.2.8).
Accordingly, 80% of Austrians regard their level of nutritional knowledge as sufficient, 13%
as absolutely sufficient and only 1% as insufficient. The most positive self-estimation could
be noticed for the 30 to 50 year old men and women, the most negative for adolescents
under 20 (BMLF 1997).
However, according to studies within the scope of the Austrian Nutrition Report, 1998 results on nutritional knowledge of Austrian adults (questions about nutrients, calorie contents etc.) show in part very low levels among those interviewed. This indicates that measures are required for a target group with specific information for disinterested, informational
passive groups. Written nutritional information can only reach well-informed and interested
population groups. Thus, the use of mass media should be considered for effective and
objective nutrition information (Elmadfa et al. 1999).
The importance of nutrition in daily life differs between age groups and is also dependent
on body weight. In general, 41% of Austrians regard eating as very important, 44% as important and only 2% as completely unimportant. Only 36% of Austrians over 60 years confirm that nutrition is very important to them, whereas 46% of the 25 to 39 year-old Austrians
hold this opinion. Being asked the same question, 48% of underweight people consider
their diet as very important compared to only 39% of overweight people (AC Nielsen
1999).
The main criteria for consumption are the taste (very important for 79%) and the naturalness in terms of not having been genetically manipulated (69%). The awareness of healthy
3
The annual advertising expenditures related to food products and beverages are estimated at
about 2.5 bio ATS (180 mio EURO), that is about 12 % of the total advertising expenditures. By far
the biggest part is spent for TV advertising (Media Focus Research GesmbH 2000).
20
nutrition, however, is still not very dominant in Austria: Only every fifth person stated that
they pay attention to a healthy diet, two thirds regard their daily nutrition as normal and another 20% only follow their taste preferences (FESSEL+GfK 1998).
According to a different survey – part of the Austrian Nutrition Report 1998 previously mentioned – the majority of the population (72%) defines its daily nutrition as a normal, mixed
diet including meat nearly every day. Less than a quarter of Austrians claim that their daily
diet consists of a lot of fruit, vegetables and whole-grain cereals, with only sporadic consumption of meat. Only 2% stick to a vegetarian diet, this group mainly consists of young
women and higher educated people. The latter also constitute the majority of those who eat
less meat within a "normal" diet (Elmadfa et al. 1999).
Forty-four percent of the Austrian population is completely convinced that good food in the
sense of taste is part of a real, adequate lifestyle. Moreover, there is not much agreement
with statements such as “I don’t care much about food” or “it is important not to lose much
time with eating.” In contrast, not many Austrians consider themselves as gourmets (FESSEL+GfK 1998).
2.2.8. Food safety and the consumers’ attitudes towards wellness
The portion of consumers who are afraid of the health hazards of foods has grown remarkably. However, the estimation of nutrition-related risks among scientists and the population differs greatly. Consumers feel that residues and contaminants pose the highest
hazard attributable to food, followed by food additives. The latter constituted a health hazard to 65% of Austrian adults according to a recent survey (Popp-Hadalin 1997). In contrast, today’s scientists know that nutrition behaviour and pathogenic microorganisms due
to bad hygienic conditions followed by natural food toxins pose a much higher risk (Federal
Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection 1999/Culinar 1999).
The reasons for the wide-spread feeling of insecurity are manifold, including the general
decreasing confidence in the arguments of experts, the often inferior information policy of
producers, the growing alienation from highly processed products, and the frequent headlines about food scandals. For example, food scandals connected with BSE and dioxin
residues have heightened the consumers need for security and control. Thus, an increasing portion of the consumers pays more attention to the criteria of freshness, origin and
naturalness in terms of the least possible changes during food processing (AMA 1999,
BMLF 1997, Nohel et al. 1999).
The Austrian food control system intends to protect the consumer from health hazards and
deception. Food control institutions established by the head of the state government collect
samples of foods, foodstuffs, food additives, cosmetics and commodities according to the
annual auditing and sampling plan issued by the ministry. Auditing results of the manufacturers show that complaints about hygiene apply more often to service companies and
21
small producers directly selling their products in retail trade compared to the large producers.
In 1998, the amount of samples bearing health hazards was 5%, 10% of samples were
wasted/spoiled.4 For meat and meat products, fish and fish products, shellfish, eggs and
particularly poultry and poultry products, higher proportions of complaints were found as
compared to fruit and vegetables. Starting in1986, the number of salmonella poisonings
increased significantly all over Europe although recently they have been going down
slightly more. Table XY shows respective figures for Austria from 1990 to 1998, the estimated number of unreported cases is assumed to be much higher (Federal Ministry of
Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection 1999). However, the risk of microbial contamination for the consumer could be minimised by accurate food preparation especially at the
household level. Legislative measures will also include Salmonella-fighting-programs in
Austria.
Tab. 8: Cases of illness and death due to infection with salmonella in Austria from 1990 to
1998 (Federal Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection 1999)
Year
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
Illnesses
8515
9030
11109
10014
8706
8705
6976
7488
6971
Deaths
11
6
8
4
4
5
8
2
0
As well as the consumers’ concerns about food safety, their health awareness has also
generally risen. After the lightness-boom of the 1980s slowly declined in its cycle as a
trend, the 1990s brought in a second big wave of health awareness, which is now more
strongly focused on the increased holistic feeling of wellness.
The acceptance of light-products in Austria in 1995 and 1998 confirms this downward
trend. While five years ago nearly one third of adult men and women stated that they use
calorie-reduced foods regularly (Unger et al. 1997), only 14% consumed light-products in
1998 (FESSEL+GfK 1998). This does not take into account the difference in the survey
methods. The highest popularity among light-foods was found for dairy products; caloriereduced ready-to-eat meals, beer and sweets have only gained slight acceptance on the
market. The main reasons for switching to light-products are still maintaining body weight
or health and for people over 35 there has been an increase in the number of those suffer4
Basis for the calculations are only those samples which resulted in complaints, not all observed
samples!
22
ing from a nutrition-related disease (Unger et al. 1997).
According to the predominant wellness feeling in Austria, the new matter is a growing demand for foods which supply an additional benefit for individual health. Nutritional fortification of basic foods can be an efficient measure for health prevention to rapidly and sufficiently improve the nutritional status of different population groups. There is an unsatisfactory level of knowledge about the intake of fortified foods and their contribution to nutrient
supply. Additional and more detailed information is urgently required to estimate potential
excessive intakes of nutrients with narrow safety margins. In Germany for example, already
about one quarter of the consumers regularly consume vitamin fortified food products.
Apart from iodised salt and fortified fruit juices – breakfast cereals, sweets, and enriched
dairy products are the most frequently consumed products of this type in Austria. However,
risks of these measures such as overdosing on the added nutrient due to extreme consumption habits must also be taken into consideration (Elmadfa et al. 1999). The market for
so-called functional food also includes probiotic yoghurts and other products with additional
health benefits. According to the different definitions, market shares for functional food of 5
to 10% were estimated for the following five years (Hüsing et al. 1999). Although the real
outcome of this trend cannot be forecast exactly at the moment, most of the economic
hopes in this emerging market should not be taken too seriously. In any case it seems to
be leading towards a sort of medicine-pumping of the food supply.
23
3. The environmental impacts from food consumption
There is an ongoing running dispute about the importance and influence of private households and the areas in which they can make a significant contribution to sustainable consumption. Households, through their demand side influence on the economy, are potentially one of the major actors, yet often seem to remain a “sleeping giant.” This is why reliable and easily understandable information is of crucial importance if the already given
environmental awareness of households is to become a relevant driving force in the market. A German study (Lorek and Spangenberg 1999) identifies food and nutrition as a priority field for action by households to reduce environmental impacts (beside construction
and housing, and transport). The results were basing on an input side methodology using
energy, material and land-use aspects. Several other studies, mainly focussing on household energy consumption, led to a similar outcome about the importance of food.
Tab. 9 Resource use of different consumption clusters in % of the total national use (Lorek
et al. 1999)
Consumption clusters
Construction and housing
Food/nutrition
Mobility
Energy
Material
Land use
43,8%
13,6%
24,2%
29%
19%
11%
5,8%
54,7%
4,6%
This section of the present study aims to describe the range of environmental impacts of
the post-production stages, mainly consumption by households, whether it is done at home
or out of home. There are manifold pressures upon the environment caused by the consumption stages. A series of different activities are connected with problematic environmental impacts: distribution, packaging, storage, shopping, cooking, dressing, cleansing,
and waste disposal (for a detailed description see Jungbluth 2000). The broad variety of
these impacts can be generally differentiated into pressures directly derived from the
households, indirect effects caused by changes in the consumer demands on the structure
of the food system (feedback loops), and thirdly, those impacts which effect the consumer
on a mental level such as their attitudes towards environmental issues (environmental
awareness, environmental justice). We focus our investigations on the first and the third
category, the direct pressures and the level of attitudes (already discussed in the section
above). The description of direct pressures includes the matters of energy, transport, area
and waste. Indirect pressures like the so-called hidden impacts or “ecological backpacks“
accompanying most of the input flows into the consumption sector are kept out of investigations. The section is then supplemented by a separate food-related biomass balance,
which is derived from the national material-flow accounting for Austria. It offers a brief
summary of the methodological framework and highly aggregated picture of the biomass
flow through the entire national food chain from the cradle to the grave.
24
3.1. Energy
Most of the studies dealing with sustainable food consumption focus on energy issues (e.g.
Carlsson-Kanyama 1999, Carlsson-Kanyama and Faist 2000, Faist et al. 2000, Moll 2000),
because energy is an essential input factor for shopping, storing, preparing, cooking and
cleansing activities in the households. No cooking is possible without energy. In fact, the
use of energy for all these nutrition-related activities plays a remarkable although not dominant part in the total energy use of the private households. For Austria it is estimated to
about 19 PJ/a (1997), i.e. 7% of the total household energy consumption (excl. fuel for
shopping trips). In comparison, the US case study estimates the energy use for cooking
and washing dishes to be about 10% of all energy used in the home (Kaufmann and Chevrot 2000). A Swiss study (Ospelt 1996) shows that the cumulative primary energy consumption pertaining to food needs in private households accounts for 12% of the total.
Fig. 5 The use of energy consumption in Austrian households, 1970 –1997 (data from the
Austrian Energy Agency)
300000
280000
lighting
260000
cooking
240000
appliances
TJ
220000
water heating
200000
space heating
180000
160000
140000
120000
100000
1970
1997
Tab. 9 Energy consumption data on nutrition related activities of the average Austrian
household with 2 adults and 2 children (data from the Austrian Ecology Institute)
Activities
Average energy consumption,
in kWh/a per household
Cooking
330
Cooling
360
Freezing
230
25
Since the food related energy consumption of the households (excl. fuel for shopping trips)
is clearly dominated by the use of appliances it seems to be worthwhile to have a closer
look at their evolution over time. The aggregate energy intensity of food related technical
household equipment (mainly electrical appliances) is determined by two factors: the growing efficiency of the tools vs. the growing amount of equipment through new and larger appliances. Although the average efficiency has increased and probably will continue to increase remarkably, the gains in efficiency were clearly outrun by the increases in volume
and size. Thus the net effect turned into a clear boost of energy use in absolute terms as is
shown in the figure above.
Tab. 10: Kitchen equipment quota 1970 to 1998, in percent of total number of households
(Austrian Energy Agency 2000, own calculations)
Refrigerators
Freezers
Dishwashers
Microwavers
1970
1980
1990
1998
66.5
11.0
0.5
0.0
97.5
53.5
11.5
0.0
96.0
65.4
30.0
23.0
97.0
67.0
44.0
45.0
The aggregate energy use of the retail chains (heating and cooling; without transport) is
estimated to be about 5 PJ/a (own calculations based upon Belz 1994, AC Nielsen and
BMLF 1997; under the assumption that similar to the total turnover about half of the total
energy use is dedicated to food sales).
The overall impact on greenhouse gases (GHG) caused by the energy consumption of
households and retailers requires a calculated non-comprehensive extension of data investigations (detailed information about the mix of energy careers is necessary). According to
the German Enquete-Kommission distribution and consumption together cover 42% of the
whole CO2 emissions which are connected with the food system.
Tab. 11: The contribution of the food system to the greenhouse effect, in million tons of
CO2-equivalents per year (Enquete-Kommission 1994)
agriculture
processing
distribution
consumption
total
mio tons of CO2equivalents
135
15
35
75
percentage
260
100
52
6
13
29
26
3.2. Transport
When people go food shopping or out to have a meal, they usually walk or, increasingly,
drive their car. First, it might be worth mentioning that shopping for food is actually the only
considerable pedestrian traffic relevant mainly within short distances from the home. However, no statistics are available on the real extent of pedestrian traffic referring to the total
modal split. The traffic experts, however, at least all agree that it is slowly losing its importance. The reasons are manifold, reaching from transitions in family structures, increasing
convenience up to the sustained loss of local stores. Primarily, it is the large variety of locally situated groceries that has decreased remarkably, so that today already more than
300 municipalities in Austria are without any local food supply.
Obviously the food-related transport activities directly related to households are mainly centred around individual car traffic. Official data about the specific amount of food miles does
not exist, but it is estimated that about 15% of total individual car traffic is dedicated to
shopping trips, which are undoubtedly quite frequently made based on food demand. Under the assumption that food shopping comprises about two thirds or more, it would be up
to approximately 10% of the total transport demand of the households (Herry and Sammer
1998). However, quantitative estimates are extremely uncertain because of the frequent
lack of clarity regarding the functional relationship of the shopping trips. For instance, working people very often manage their food shopping on the way to and from their working
place, which makes it rather impossible to generate indicative figures for food miles.
The data situation is clearly better with regard to commercial freight traffic, because the
official freight traffic statistics also include the possibility of a functional differentiation of
transport performances, which means that one can draw a rather clear relationship to
transport performances directly caused by the food system. Furthermore, it is possible to
differentiate into long-distance freight traffic, short-distance/local freight traffic and freight
traffic from abroad. With regard to the transport performance (measured by tons/km.a) the
share of food freight is about 10.4% (1993: 26.9 mio tkm) of the total annual freight volume.
In comparison with the total volume growth, no noticeably greater increase was observed.
Since the mid-1980s, food freight volume has increased by about 10%, which is rather
similar to the total freight volume growth (Payer et al. 1996). However, the further growth
after the entry into the EU is estimated remarkably higher because of market liberalisation.
A German study estimated a rise of about 70% of the average food miles per capita since
the 1970s, whereas the quantitative per-capita-consumption has changed in no way (Mildner and Böge 1996).
The modal split of food freights shows a clear dominance of road traffic constituting three
quarters of the total food transport performance. With regard to the average transport distances, the long distances clearly prevail against the short distances. The domestic longdistance freight traffic together with the transit traffic cover up to about 70% of the total food
related transport performances, whereas the short distances cover merely 20%. The average distance within the short-distance traffic is about 50 kilometres, whereas the average
27
distance of long-distance drives is about 230 kilometres. Compared to others the domestic
long-distance freight traffic shows the highest rates of growth. Furthermore, the share of
food miles by air transportation seems to be rather low in Austria. Although the official
freight traffic statistics do not offer any data about transport performances by air, the food
miles by air can be assumed to still play a marginal role in the traffic situation. 5
Tab. 12: Food miles in Austria, 1984 to 1995 – annual freight traffic in mio tons/km (own
calculations based upon ÖSTAT Güterverkehrsstatistik, Payer et al. 1996, Rosinak & Partner 2000)
1984
1988
1993
traffic medium (modal split):
road
rail
waterway
total
1,984.3
532.5
25.4
2,542.3
2,006.0
697.5
52.2
2,755.6
2,039.3
571.7
158.6
2,769.6
transport distances:
domestic long-distance freight traffic
domestic short-distance freight traffic
import
export
transit
total
796.1
542.1
240.7
136.2
827.3
2,542.3
929.6
527.1
248.8
200.1
850.1
2,755.6
893.7
576.8
252.7
172.2
874.2
2,769.6
All in all, the growing amount of transportation can be regarded without a doubt as one of
the most serious environmental pressures resulting from the food system. The rapid growth
of distances has been caused by several factors. The evolution is closely connected to the
general centralisation of production sites, the reduction of small stores in favour of big supermarkets, hypermarkets and shopping centres, and the rising internationalisation of nutrition habits (see also chapter 2.2.6). Also to be considered is that the growing transport intensity is the one dimension of this development accompanied by a great number of further
pressures. Transport related air emissions, changed challenges to the preservation frames
(a close cooling chain), changed challenges to the packaging systems, and an increasing
demand for large storage plants.
5
In terms of absolute tonnage the freight transportation by air shares merely 0.0002 % of the total
freight traffic. Since the mid-1990s freight export via the airport of Vienna, by far the biggest air
freight destination in Austria, has remained constant with no increases (ÖSTAT).
28
3.3. Waste
In terms of waste management, the delivery, preparation, use and disposal of food gain a
tremendous importance. Food waste covers a huge part of the total waste caused at the
consumption level. It covers food losses by overstocking, over preparation, cooking losses,
plate waste, leftover portions, misunderstanding of quality defects etc. in all kind of kitchens
(households, restaurants, caterers, bars, fast food chains, hospitals etc.), diverse packaging materials and finally human excreta. Because of the mixing with other waste fluctuates
the availability of consistent data on the food related waste volume is quite limited. A Swiss
study (Belz 1994) estimated that at least one quarter of total municipal waste is caused by
food consumption. Probably it is the second largest component of discarded waste second
only to the waste volume caused by construction activities.
According to the Federal Waste Management Plan, approximately 2.8 million tons of nonhazardous waste from domestic households and similar establishments (agriculture, commercial/industrial/public administration offices, kindergartens, schools, hospitals etc.) accumulated in 1996. About 54% were disposed of as so-called residual and bulky waste by
the public garbage collection service. About 46% of the entire accumulation of community
and domestic waste could be gathered by separate collection and subsequently delivered
to sorting, recycling, thermal recovery, other treatment and landfill. During the late 1990s
the total accumulation of waste from households and similar establishments increased remarkably. The annual growth rate of household waste is currently estimated at about 5%
(Hochreiter 2000), which is definitely more than the annual GDP rate. The most significant
reasons for that rise are the sustained population growth, the growing trend towards single
households, the growing supply of one-way-products, and the obvious change in food consumption patterns (increasing demand of convenience food and smaller packaged units).
The most food relevant parts of the waste from households and similar establishments
concern the packaging waste, the biogenic waste and the low weight but hazardous waste
in the forms of refrigerating agents, propellants or solvents containing hydrofluorcarbons
(FMEYFA 1998).
The annual packaging waste volume is caused to a great extent by food products and beverages, whereby beverage packaging constitutes nearly half of the total household packaging waste. Although the recycle quotas in the sectors of beer, drinking-waters, wine, nonalcoholic refreshments and milk are quite high in comparison to other countries, the actual
share of recyclable beverage packaging has continuously decreased from about 80% in
1985 to about 50% in 2000 (Austrian Ecology Institute). Recyclable beverage bottles cause
less energy intensity, less residual waste, and help to support regional production. But the
competition-driven economic pressure in favour of one-way-systems currently seems to be
very high.
In the case of biogenic waste (mainly food and garden waste formerly self-composted), the
quantities collected separately in biodegradable waste disposal containers nearly doubled,
rising from about 180,000 tons to 360,000 tons (self-composting not included). In 1996, the
29
per capita amount collected was about 46 kg on a national average. It is estimated that
additional potentials of nearly 20% of residual waste can still be separately collected and
earmarked for bio-technical treatment (FMEYFA 1998). A study on the waste management
in the Viennese gastronomy estimates the potential of residual waste reduction at more
than one third of the recent volume. Separate waste collection is regarded as the most effective measure. For example, a remarkable part of the biogenic waste could be re-used in
pork production (Graggaber et al. 2000).
Tab. 13: Average food losses at the household level, in percent of product net weights (Erard 1986, ÖSTAT 1995)
poultry
veal
beef
oils
butter
pork
fruits
cheese
55%
50%
48%
46%
45%
45%
42%
18%
3.4. Environmental awareness in food consumption
The sustained need for healthier life-styles must be looked at in close connection with a
general rise in interest in environmental issues. Consumers in Austria are often regarded
as more environmentally focussed than in other countries. At the level of food consumption
in Austria that means at least a growing willingness to purchase products from organic
farms, products without GMO -related ingredients, products from true-to-species animal
keeping, meals without hormone-treatment, products without irradiation-treatment, products
with less transport inputs or products which guarantee landscape conservation. Thus, in
Austria about half of the consumers are willing to pay up to 20% more to environmentally
protect food products. About 5% of those interviewed are even willing to pay an even
higher price. The higher the educational status the greater is the willingness to pay more
for environmentally friendly foods (ÖSTAT 2000).
In fact, the Austrian boom of organic farming during the first half of the 1990s was heavily
based on the growing demand for those products. Today, more than one half of all consumers at least occasionally uses organic products (Nohel et al. 1999). However, there are
a few further success factors to the Austrian bio-boom. These range from the entrance of
the big chain stores into the organic food business, the highly clever restructuring of the
umbrella organisations of the organic farmers and the remarkable boost of public subsidies
after the entrance into the EU.
30
Eighty-nine percent of all Austrian consumers - more than the EU average - wish to be informed in detail about the origin of the products they buy. Far more than 80% also want
information about use of GMO, treatment with irradiation, way of animal keeping, organic
production of foods and environment-saving measures. For other EU citizens those criteria
are less important.
Tab. 14: Environmental-related shopping criteria and food specific information need in Austria compared to EU average, answers in % (taken from Fraselle and Lacoste 1998)
"If you buy a food product, do you wish to be informed in full particulars about:"
Answer:
YES - Austria (%)
YES - EU (%)
product origin
89
80
use of GMO
87
75
treatment with irradiation
86
77
way of animal keeping
86
69
organic production
85
75
environmental impacts
84
77
production method (cultivation, breeding etc.)
79
67
As mentioned above (see chapter 2.2.7) demand for information about the food consumed
such as food labelling is also widespread. Ninety-three percent of the Austrian population
claimed to read food labels regularly. Ninety-six percent would like to find a declaration of
origin on the food label, and about 90% want a statement on used food additives and new
preservation methods such as food irradiation or the application of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) (Fraselle and Lacoste 1998).
Compared to citizens of other EU and even international states, the Austrians’ scepticism
towards genetic engineering is highest. In April 1997 a referendum certified that 78% of
Austrian consumers refuse to ever buy genetically modified plant foods – the highest proportion of all population groups surveyed. Whereas genetic technology is rather accepted
in the fields of medicine and pharmaceuticals (about 40% approval), the acceptance is extremely low concerning plant and animal food production with 95% disapproval. In this context, luxury foods such as sweets or alcoholic beverages still have a better chance of being
accepted than basic foods (Elmadfa and Weiss 1997).
31
Fig. 6: Willingness to buy genetically modified plant foods in Austria – international comparison (Hoban 1997)
"Would you buy genetically modified (insect-resistant) plant foods?”
80
60
74 73
71 69
64 63 62
60 59 59
40
55 55 53
51 50 49
43
30
20
22
ITA
SW
E
IR
E
NO
R
LU
X
FR
G
AU
T
FIN
DK
F
ES
P
GR
NL
UK
BE
L
P
JP
N
CD
N
US
A
0
3.5. Excursion: Food-related biomass flows - empirical results from national
material flow accounting:
The ecological dimension of the sustainability debate amongst other things challenges a
general reduction in the human use of non-renewable resources and the reduction in the
use of renewable resources as far as it goes beyond their rate of regeneration. Since then,
the dominance of the paradigm of toxicity has lost its monopoly position in environmental
policy. For the first time particular attention is being paid to the mere physical dimensions of
the relationship between society and nature, which in comparison to every living organism
can also be described in terms of physical metabolism.
All kinds of social systems can be constructed as physical input-output models in order to
constitute the material metabolism with their environment. The following figure shows the
functional relationship of the relevant material flows.
32
Fig. 7: Input-out-model of the metabolism of social systems
INPUT
ECONOMY
OUTPUT
Stock changes
Domestic Extraction:
- Fossil
- Minerals
- Biomass
Material throughput
- Water
(per year)
Imports
-
Emissions
Waste
Sewage
Dissipative losses
Exports
Since the 1990s, at the national level so-called material flow accounting has been done in
several industrialised countries. These national material flow accounts are an essential part
of the SEEA (System of Ecological and Economic Accounting), which are calculated as
satellite balance accounts to the SNA (System of National Accounting). The systemic
boundaries of the material flow accounting are the same as for the SNA. Thus, the results
of material flow accounting can be related to data coming from the SNA. National material
flow accounting provides a highly aggregated picture of the physical exchanges between
society and nature, and between different national economies respectively. It allows us to
describe the entire material base of the annual monetary domestic product of the national
economy.
At the national level, the input side of the model consists of all primary extractions within
domestic territory and all material imports from abroad, which adds up to the total direct
material input into the economy. The imports consist of the mass of raw materials, semifinished, and finished products. The weight of the raw materials and products is calculated
as they are passing the territorial borderlines of Austria. But all the hidden indirect material
inputs, which are necessary for the extraction and processing from abroad (“ecological
backpack“), remain uncalculated. Then, the materials imported into the domestic socioeconomic system are processed either to the extension of stocks (e.g. buildings, stock of
wines) or to be consumed and then put out of the system into nature. Thus the output side
of the equation includes emissions into the air, emissions into the water, wastes in different
forms, dissipate losses, purposive outputs like pesticides or fertilisers, and the export of
33
commodities abroad. All the flows are measured in tons. Due to the thermodynamic laws
the sum of the inputs is always equal to the sum of the outputs plus stock changes. The
balancing period is the calendar year. The total material balance sheet consists of several
partial accountings referring to the annual throughput of biomass, minerals, fossils and water. All partial balance sheets follow the same pattern, namely imports, primary extraction,
processing, final consumption, output to nature and exports.
Apart from the distinction into partial accounting by different mass categories it is also possible to distinguish criteria for the sector, function and region. For instance – material accounting referring to the whole food chain within the national economy. However, the necessity of new system boundaries has to be taken into consideration, and the fact that data
availability is mostly limited in comparison to national statistics. Therefore the following
elaboration of a consistent material flow accounting for the whole food chain is confined to
the close accounting of all food-related biomass flows at the national level.
The empirical results are presented in the figures below. Accordingly, the national foodrelated demand of biomass is 30.8 mio tons (excl. irrigation). This is about 16% of total direct material input (excl. water input) of Austria’s economy. Of that, 83% is covered by domestic extraction, and 17% is imported from abroad. The domestic extraction mainly consists of plant production. But there is only a marginal share of direct animal extraction in the
form of fish, game and honey. Namely 49%, by far the biggest part of food-related demand
of biomass, is dedicated to fodder. The national fodder input stems from domestic extraction up to about 96%, merely 4% is imported.
The entire demand of biomass for nutritional purposes is about 3.9 tons per capita. Of that,
merely one third is dedicated to private consumption, that is an average per capita use of
1.2 tons per year. If one also subtracted all losses within private households, the final net
consumption is about 0.9 tons per capita. Thus, only one quarter of total input finally goes
down the red lane.
Tab. 15: Food-related Biomass Flow Accounting Austria 1997, in mio tons (sources: Gerhold and Petrovic (2000), Schandl et al. (2000), Wolf et al. (1998), own calculations)
INPUT
OUTPUT
IMPORT
food (vegetable)
food (animal)
fodder
total
4,5
0,03
0,6
5,13
PLANT PRODUCTION
Irrigation
53,0
harvest
25,1
harvest to food supply
own consumption
harvest of f odder (incl. green fodder)
8,0
0,3
14,6
34
aftermath losses (shrinkage, dwindling)
total
25,1
2,2
25,1
ANIMAL PRODUCTION
fodder demand, in total
thereof: fodder ref. harvest statistics
thereof: fodder from fodder processing
thereof: green fodder
thereof: milk
16,1
demand of oxygen (respiration)
demand of water
11,7
37,4
total
65,2
own consumption, direct marketing
private consumption
hunting
eggs
fodder (raw milk, dairies, fat)
processing (fat)
processing (raw milk, dairies)
0,2
1,6
0,0
0,0
0,4
0,0
2,5
losses (raw milk)
losses (meat, game)
superimposed fodder, silage losses
animal manure
0,0
0,2
0,5
28,6
C-emission (in methane)
C-emission (in CO2)
oxygen (in CO2)
evaporation
0,2
4,0
11,7
15,1
65,2
2nd PROCESSING STAGE
meat, milk, eggs
vegetable products
water for beverage processing
imports (coefficient)
4,1
8,2
2,2
4,9
total
19,4
food products
fodder
exports
losses
9,4
1,2
7,6
1,2
19,4
PRIVATE CONSUMPTION
Food products
own consumption, direct marketing
9,4
0,5
total
9,9
EXPORT
food
fodder
3,0
0,2
total
3,2
kitchen-refuse
faeces
urine
evaporation
C-emission (human respiration)
balance carried forward
1,8
0,3
4,4
1,1
1,7
0,6
9,9
35
4. Policy implications
4.1. The importance of environmental issues for national nutrition policies
In Austria, national goals and strategies related to nutritional issues are generally far removed from the political agenda. The reasons for this lack of focus are manifold. This is not
the right place to enter into a deeper political analysis of the state of national nutrition policies. At the moment, however, they can be illustrated through the broad distribution of nutritional issues to different ministries, and the obvious difficulties of intergovernmental cooperation. It seems worthwhile to mention that it took nearly two decades of negotiations
between experts and officials to elaborate an initial national nutrition report, whereas other
developed countries have already entered into comprehensive public debates on the effectiveness of these monitoring instruments. Due to this condition of slack patchwork activities,
for a very long period of time, the national nutrition policy was mainly driven by the purely
quantitative post-war security paradigm, which actually lost its relevance for the vast majority of Austrians, living in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Changes took place
after Austria’s entry into the common European market, when the old supply-side market
regulation system failed and demand-side issues of malnutrition and quality began to become more attractive. However, in comparison to other countries, there are still no definite
national goals and strategies. Apart from the production-related regulations on food safety
and risk assessment, today’s nutrition policy in Austria is based mainly on three lanes of
activities:
Ø dietary allowances 6,
Ø nutrition reporting 7, and
Ø nutrition related health promotion
As in many other countries, in Austria the dietary guidelines have also turned from the old
nutrient focus to a more food-based approach. Currently there is widespread insight that
the nutrient-based recommendations require a level of expertise that cannot be expected
from the average consumer. Thus, recently the practice of dietary counselling increasingly
tends to use guidelines that translate from the level of nutrients to the common level of
6
In Austria the recommended dietary allowances (RDA) are published by the Austrian Association of
Nutrition. The Austrian RDA in fact are completely adopted from the German Association of Nutrition
because of the general assumption of a rather similar nutritional situation in both countries.
7
In 1994 the first nutrition report (Elmadfa et al.1994) was worked out for the federal state of Vienna.
In 1997 the Federal Ministry of Forestry and Agricultural Affairs published the first national food report (BMLF 1997), which actually goes far beyond the strongly medical minded focus of traditional
nutrition reports by monitoring the structural changes along the whole food chain after entry in the
EU. In 1999 the first national nutrition report (IfEW 1998) was published by the Federal Ministry of
Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection, and the Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social
Affairs.
36
product groups in order to promote the consumer’s nutritional knowledge in a more effective manner. The most well known concepts could be the food guide pyramid and the “nutritional cycle.“ Both concepts offer suggestions for dishes and daily servings for single product groups, not for specific products. Consumers should be supported in making their own
choice without being offended by technocratic orders. The recommendations should be
clear and motivating such as: “less fat” and “less products rich in fat “ or “more fruits and
vegetables.“ The food based guideline approach also undoubtedly seems to be a promising
starting point for more environmentally sound patterns. For example, “less packaged products“ or “protecting biodiversity.” The key question might be, how could we manage to provide the consumers with more information about the ecological impact of their food consumption patterns?
However, these activities still pay no particular attention to the ecological dimension of food
consumption. The focus within Austria’s national nutrition policy obviously offers hardly any
recognisable linkages to the running debates on sustainable development. Nevertheless it
is worth mentioning that the national food report includes a complete chapter on the dynamics of the domestic market of organically produced food, and that the national nutrition
report includes some detailed statements on the quality of organically produced food products, the contamination of drinking water, and the consumers’ concern about genetically
modified food products.
Obviously the nutrition agenda is mainly dominated by the criteria of wellness and lifestyle
issues, whereas environmental issues seem to be secondary. This is also clearly underlined by the thematic priorities within the broad variety of health promotion projects and
initiatives in Austria. The project data bank of the Forum Gesundes Österreich (FGÖ), the
largest government fund for public-private health promotion activities from the local to the
national level, contains a list of about 300 funded activities which have been running since
1996. The most frequent topics of these activities are exercise and nutrition, followed by
psychological health and medical welfare. In total about 200 projects are dedicated to nutrition issues. Nearly thirty different projects of those were established in the context of both
nutrition and environment.
A closer connection to the question of how to promote sustainable patterns of food consumption might be offered by the National Environmental Health Action Plan (NEHAP). In
1994 at the Second European Conference on “Environment and Health“ in Helsinki, the
European ministers of environmental and health affairs initiated a declaration to elaborate
national environmental health action plans. The sum of these national plans should make
up the Environmental Health Action Plan for Europe (EHAPE) which in turn would regularly
report to the UN/ECE. There was a basic agreement that sustainable development definitely requires shifts in consumers’ behaviour (as well as others’). In Austria, the Federal
Ministry of Environment, Youth and Family Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Health
and Social Affairs, and the Federal Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Consumer Protection
published the Austrian NEHAP in 1999 as a common strategy paper that aims to integrate
the crossovers from the overlapping policy fields: environment and health. The Austrian
37
NEHAP identifies eleven priority thematic fields including targets, problems, pressures,
trends and measures. At least the fields of food, water, traffic and settlement offer some
relevance with regard to sustainable food consumption. In the field of food quality and
safety problems there is a lack of adequate information about dietary habits, product information and irradiation of foodstuff. The proposed measures focus on the availability of nutritional status reports, the further extension of product declaration, and the maintenance of
positive irradiation lists. Apart from food quality and safety the action plan does not offer
further food-related policy activities.
Tab. 16: The National Environmental Health Action Plan of Austria – Overview of the
measures proposed in the field of “Food Quality and Safety”
Problems
Information on the
dietary habits and
mistakes of the
population
Area of
application
national
Product information national,
international
Irradiation of foodstuff
national,
international
Measures
Actors involved
Preparation of nutritional status Federal Chancellery – Fedreports
eral Minister for Women’s
Affairs and Consumer Pr otection, Federal Ministry of
Labour, Health and Social
Affairs, Federal Ministry of
Economic Affairs
Further extension of product
Federal Chancellery – Feddeclaration, including:
a) Identification of the ingrediAffairs and Consumer Pr otecents’ quantitative share,
tion, Federal Ministry of
b) Indication of ingredients also Labour, Health and Social
for alcoholic beverages,
Affairs, Federal Ministry of
c) Regulations regarding the
Economic Affairs, Federal
product declaration’s form to
Ministry of Agriculture and
improve its clearness and
Forestry, EU
legibility
Maintenance of the positive list Federal Chancellery – Fed(only approved products may
eral Minister for Women´s
be put on the market) and
Affairs and Consumer Pr otecrestrictive approach in issuing
tion,
permits,
Time horizon
short-term
short-term to medium-term
short-term
Providing for inspections directly in the production and
processing facilities
EU, Federal Chancellery –
short-term to meFederal Minister for Women’s dium-term
Affairs and Consumer Pr otection,
Efficient food monitoring
Federal Chancellery – Fedcontinuous
Affairs and Consumer Pr otection,
Sources: ANEHAP1999
4.2. Instruments supporting sustainable food consumption patterns
Beyond the general policies on nutritional issues, there are state-level and private activities
which might work as quite an effective support to change consumption patterns towards
38
developing more sustainable habits: information instruments such as labelling or information campaigns, regulations, and market instruments. In general the application of information instruments is definitely more widespread than other instruments. Since Austria entered the common market of the EU, the old system of food market regulation was rapidly
replaced by the new paradigm based upon the assumption of a rational choice consumer.
With regard to the environmental issues of food consumption, the market transition caused
by the EU-access has provided the demand side with a few information instruments but
definitely no regulations directly addressed to the consumers. The market competition between more and less environmentally friendly food products and services is predominantly
carried out through information instruments. Market instruments focus on subsidies but
there are no eco-taxes or fee solutions aiming to reduce the environmental pressures
caused by food consumption.
Information instruments
Environmentally friendly products are mostly positioned as premium goods, which consumers associate with ecology and health. To ensure the credibility of those products, different
labels have been developed. In Austria, there is a remarkable variety of private labels of
commercial- and certification-organisations. With regard to ecological criteria the most well
known are the different labels for the organic products, which mainly aim to guarantee the
compliance with the organic farming and processing principles. With regard to the organic
labels, however, it seems to be a great challenge to the consumers to maintain an overview
of the whole range of different labels, which also includes products that do not fulfil the
strict criteria of the EU regulation no.2092/91. The best-known labels for organic products
are the labels of the biggest organic farmers’ association, the additional state label, and the
private commercial label of the main domestic retailer. The domestic retailer heavily promotes their label, which no doubt is one of the key factors for the boost in the organic market in the 1990s. Labels for non-GMO products and fair trade products are quite seldom
and still not well known.
In comparison, the regional labels have gained remarkably more importance in the late
1990s, as mentioned previously (see chapter 2.2.6). Although this kind of labelling usually
does not provide any information about the environmental performance of its products, at
least it might create a certain awareness for the regional origin of the products and helps to
support small-scaled modes of production. The national food report (BMLF 1997) includes
a first nation-wide list of about 140 different regional labels. The majority of the labelled
products were dairies and meats. About 40% of the regional labels exclusively covered
products from organic farming. The modes of distribution showed a clear dominance in
favour of direct marketing to the consumers, followed by restaurants and caterers. It is possible to assume that the reported number of regional labels has increased remarkably. Today, the regional labels are already quite well presented in the World Wide Web. Internet
portals working as virtual country markets not only provide alternative shopping opportunities but also comprehensive information about the products themselves, their modes of
production and the regions of origin.
39
Eco-labels for food products based upon more comprehensive eco-balances, however,
might be experiencing a slight growth in awareness. In summer 2000, the Austrian Ecology
Institute with the support of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and
Water Management published a consumers guide which includes an eco-ranking for more
than 160 selected typical product examples of all important food product groups (Gupfinger
et al. 2000). On the basis of several international eco-balances and similar studies, the
eco-ranking covers the categories of transport, agriculture (plant and animal production),
packaging, processing and preservation. The ranking is supplemented by further rankings
with regard to health and social tolerance, background information on the different product
groups, and shopping hints.
Apart from labelling, there are also consumer information campaigns that seem to form a
valuable contribution to the consumers’ information level with regard to environmental issues. These information campaigns are mainly undertaken by environmental and consumer protection organisations but are often supported by public funds. One of the more
successful examples is the “Earth & Hearth Tales” interactive exhibition aiming at deepening and revising the visitor’s knowledge of ecological agriculture and healthy food. Since
June 1996, the exhibition has been on tour through Austria. It is shown mainly in schools,
supplemented by exercise books for pupils, action folders for teachers guided tours, workshops and vocational training seminars for teachers and farmers. Up to now, about
100,000 visitors have seen the exhibition. The exhibition was conceived by “die umweltberatung”, “ARGE Biolandbau” and “Koordinierungsstelle für Umweltschutz.” Due to its
great success, it was not possible to meet the requests of all communities and schools that
wanted to install the “Earth & Hearth Tales” exhibition. They came up with the “Earth &
Hearth Tales”- Box, which contains a wealth of games, information materials and suggestions pertaining to ecological agriculture and nutrition, and is especially well suited for
teaching and classroom use.
Market instruments
Although the European environmental policy aims to foster the importance of market instruments, there are only a few market-based instruments like taxes, fees or subsidies offering economic incentives for environmentally friendly food consumption behaviour. In
comparison to other EU members, in Austria the eco-taxes are obviously less applied instruments. The annual revenue of eco-taxes in general is about 5.5% of the total tax revenue in comparison to 6.7% of total EU average. In comparison to the currently predominant
energy, transport or resource taxes, the so-called pollution taxes (user pays-principle) by
about 1% of total tax revenue are of less importance than the international average shows
(Gerhold 2000). The former fertiliser tax was abolished in 1996. However, in many other
countries the pollution taxes currently seem to gain more attention because of their relatively easy administrative handling in comparison to the polluter pays-principle. The consumption of environmentally problematic food products (e.g. high-energy intensity, high
transport intensity, high intensity of pesticides) might offer some interesting linkages in fa-
40
vour of environmental taxes.
The various deposit systems of the beverage industry (milk, mineral water, soft drinks and
beer bottles) in favour of multipath bottles is also looked upon as an effective strategy to
reduce the packaging waste from food consumption. However, due to cost reasons, one
way bottles, mostly plastic, continuously substitute the multipath systems.
Besides deposit fees there are a broader range of different supply-side subsidies fostering
environmentally friendly production and distribution systems, which sometimes indirectly
effect consumer prices. As these subsidies are not completely absorbed by the producers
themselves, it results in relatively lower prices for environmentally friendly products. The
price difference to the common, less environmentally friendly products decreases and the
market incentives create higher demand for green products. For example, the EU regulation no. 2092/91 has provided the legal basis for premiums that favour organic farming,
which enables both increase on the supply side and relative decrease in the high-price of
organic products according to the type of food, market share and marketing channel.
41
5. Conclusions
The domestic sector is an important area of the economy but is often unjustly overlooked
as a source of pressure on the environment. The choices made by individuals concerning
the purchase of consumer items can significantly influence environmental impacts from the
domestic and other sectors. This is especially evident for daily food consumption decisions.
The influence of households on the environmental impacts of food production and consumption goes far beyond cooking and cooling patterns. The importance of the household
sector lies in its demand for food resources and products, the food waste generated by
consumption of those ingredients and its capacity to influence agricultural, industrial and
commercial activities through its spending power. This influence can be shown through the
exercise of consumer choice, either in increased demand for perceived environmentally
friendly products or in the avoidance of less friendly products or manufacturers. By expressing their preferences at the shopping points, households have a significant influence
on the kind of food supplied, the modes of production, distribution, preparation and storage.
At the same time, households themselves are influenced by a variety of demographic, social and economic factors, including household income, working and leisure time structures, availability of goods, availability and quality of substitutes, nutritional knowledge, environmental awareness, and peer groups.
Starting from a comprehensive description of the changing food consumption patterns in
Austria, the case study demonstrates the close links between the day-to-day consumption
decisions about food and environmental impacts.
The age structure of the population will change in favour of a growing portion of older people. The share of people over 60 is forecast to increase to 25% by 2015 whereas the
share of children under 15 will go down to 14%. This means a more or less constant need
of energy and/or food products during the near future but a long-term decline of the
physiologically necessary demand, mainly caused by the lower energy needs of older
people. Thus, no significant increases in nutrient and consequently food demand need to
be expected for the coming two decades.
The number of households will continue to increase whereas the average size of the
household will simultaneously decrease. The ongoing development in favour of singlehouseholds and the general trend to individualisation promotes the demand for convenience products, for smaller packing units, for rationalised cooking behaviour and for a
stronger home meal replacement (domestic outsourcing). The number of working women
with higher education is still increasing whereas the number of women acting only as
housewives is definitely going down. Together with the fact that the majority of men still
only minimally participate in the housekeeping agenda, these factors will contribute to the
growing demand for frozen foods, chilled ready meals, single serving packages, instant
meals, sophisticated kitchen equipment, mobile delivery services and home meal replacement.
42
The relative share of food expenditure in terms of total private consumption has continuously decreased, reaching about 15%, which means a growing unused available portion of
income. This effect of increased available income together with the enormously growing
variety of the food supply has promoted a more situated and event-driven consumer behaviour (hybrid consumer, chameleon consumer), which gradually seems to be losing its
former strong determination by social factors such as income, education and profession.
The most important source of supply for nearly all food categories are supermarkets and
discount markets. Only meats and baked goods are purchased more frequently from the
specialised trade. But new forms of food shopping opportunities have begun to gain more
importance during the last few years, for example petrol stations or mobile delivery services. The rate of online-shopping has increased remarkably, but because of confidence
issues the growth rates are not so rapid as in other fields.
There is a wide-spread feeling of insecurity, which is mainly based upon the general decreasing confidence in the arguments of experts, the inferior information policy of producers, the growing alienation from highly processed products, and the frequent food scandals like BSE or dioxin residues. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of consumers pay
more attention to the criteria of freshness, origin and naturalness in terms of the least possible changes during food processing.
Since the mid-1980s, consumption patterns with regard to different food categories have
changed with remarkable increases in fruit juices, refreshment beverages, fresh fruits,
vegetables, cereals, rice, cheese and legumes, fish, poultry and plant oils, but significant
decreases in veal, beef, pork, milk and rye. Simple consumption data, however, is not an
appropriate assessment of environmental impacts. It reflects neither positive nor negative
changes in the pressures upon the environment. To reflect these changes would require
comprehensive analysis of the different modes of production and distribution. Nevertheless, the focus of the study urges reconsideration of the usual dietary allowances with regard to their ecological suitability. Crude recommendations, for example, in favour of more
fish and poultry do not reflect the often very problematic methods of fishing or animal
keeping.
Thus, more transparency about the environmental impacts of food products definitely requires adequate information tools. The study confirms the Austrian consumers’ relatively
high attention to environmental issues. In Austria, labelling in favour of organic products
offers important support for environmentally friendly food products. It can be regarded as
one of the key factors in the market boost of organic farming products. Future attention
ought to be drawn to a better understanding of the underlying environmental principles,
and the more effective avoidance of misleading labelling. Furthermore, information policy
support in favour of other environmentally relevant features such as the origin, the use of
GMO, the treatment with irradiation, or the method of keeping animals might be desirable
for quite a large target group. But a general eco-labelling for food products, such as for
43
other products, still does not exist. First pilot activities investigating selected eco-ratings
are under development, but ought to be supported by further studies.
In terms of direct environmental impacts, the study provides a rough overview of the three
main dimensions, namely energy, transport and waste. The food related direct use of energy (fuels for shopping tours excluded) is estimated to about 7% of the total household
energy consumption. The ratio of food miles is estimated to be at least 10% of total individual car traffic. It could be shown that most of the recent studies relevant to the subject
focus on the energy implications of food consumption, but often overlook the high relevance of transport and waste volumes. It is assumed that this strong energy focus is
mostly caused by the remarkably improved availability of appropriate energy data in comparison to the data upon the food consumers related waste flows and transport kilometres.
Thus, more data on food losses and food miles at the domestic level would be highly welcome for further studies.
In general, the focus of Austria’s nutrition policy hardly offers operational linkages to the
running debate of sustainable development. The nutrition agenda is mainly dominated by
the criteria of wellness and health issues, whereas environmental issues seem to be secondary. A closer connection to the question of how to promote sustainable patterns of food
consumption might be offered by the National Environmental Health Action Plan (NEHAP).
In the field of food quality and safety, the Action Plan states a lack of adequate information
about dietary habits, irradiation of foodstuff and product information. The proposed measures focus on the availability of nutritional status reports, the further extension of product
declaration, and the maintenance of positive irradiation lists. Beyond these policy recommendations on nutritional issues, there are some further state-level and private activities
that work as quite an effective support to change consumption patterns to become more
sustainable. These activities are mainly based on information instruments such as environmentally related product labels, regional marketing or consumer information campaigns. But there are only a few market-based instruments such as fees or subsidies offering economic incentives for environmentally friendly food consumption behaviour.
44
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48
Appendix
Fig. 8 Consumption of legumes and potatoes 1947/48-19998/99
Per capita consumption (kg) per year
2,5
120
100
2
80
1,5
legumes
60
1
40
0,5
20
94
/95
*
98
/99
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
90
/91
94
/95
*
98
/99
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
0
50
/51
potatoes
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey, mode figures from 1994/95 onwards are not completely comparable.
49
100
wheat
80
rye
60
40
20
0
98
/99
94
/95
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
*
9
8
barley, oat, maize
7
rice**
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
98
/99
94
/95
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
*
Fig. 9 Consumption of cereals and rice 1947/48-1998/99
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey, mode figures from 1994/95 onwards are not completely comparable.
120
50
100
80
60
fresh fruits
citrus fruits
40
shell fruits
20
/71
70
/81
80
/91
90
*
/95
94
/99
98
98
/99
100
/61
60
94
/95
*
/51
50
90
/91
0
90
80
70
60
50
vegetables
40
30
20
10
83
/84
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
Fig.10 Consumption of fruit and vegetables 1947/48-1998/99
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey, mode figures from 1994/95 onwards
are not completely comparable.
51
45
40
35
30
sugar
25
20
15
10
5
0
/51
50
/61
60
/71
70
/81
80
/91
90
*
/95
94
/99
98
2
1,8
1,6
1,4
honey
1,2
1
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
Fig.11 Consumption of sugar and honey
98
/99
94
/95
*
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
1947/48-1998/99
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey mode, figures from 1994/95 onwards
are not completely comparable.
52
20
18
16
14
12
10
plant oil
8
oilseeds**
6
4
2
98
/99
94
/95
*
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
Fig.12 Consumption of plant oil and oilseeds 1947/48-1998/99
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey mode, figures from 1994/95 onwards
are not completely comparable. **oilseeds have been recorded only since 1989/90.
16
14
12
eggs
10
8
6
4
2
0
/51
50
/61
60
/71
70
/81
80
/91
90
*
95
99
Fig.13 Consumption of eggs 1947/48-1999
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey mode, figures from 1995 onwards are
not completely comparable.
53
180
160
140
120
100
milk
80
60
40
20
0
/51
50
/61
60
/71
70
/81
80
/91
90
*
95
99
20
18
16
butter
14
cream
12
cheese, curd
10
8
6
4
2
99
95
*
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
Fig.14 Consumption of milk and dairy products 1947/48-1999
*Due to Austria’s access to the EU and adaptation to survey, mode figures from 1995 onwards are
54
70
60
50
pork
veal
40
beef (incl. veal)
poultry
30
20
10
99
95
*
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
7
6
5
4
3
fish
2
1
99
95
*
90
/91
80
/81
70
/71
60
/61
50
/51
0
Fig. 15 Consumption of meat and fish 1947/48-1999
55
140
120
100
wine
beer
80
60
40
20
0
/51
50
/61
60
/71
70
/81
80
/91
90
*
/95
94
/99
98
Fig. 16 Consumption of wine and beer 1947/48-1998/99

Food Consumption in Austria Driving Forces and

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